Trans Fat is harmful to your heart

Do you love eating packaged or baked foods? If your answer yes, then I’d advise you to cut down on the quantity you eat; better yet, stop eating them completely. Why? Because they are not good for your health (especially if you are above forty) due to the trans-fat they contain.

Trans fats are fats that are formed through an industrial process that adds hydrogen to vegetable oils, which causes the oils to become solid at room temperature. Hence, these oils are referred to as partially-hydrogenated oils (PHOs).

However, trans fats, occur naturally in small amounts in meat and diary products from cows, sheep, and other ruminants,” but they are not as dangerous as the trans fats in packaged and processed foods, such as cakes, cookies and pies, fried foods, doughnuts and margarine. High amount of trans fat in your diet raises your risk for heart disease and other health issues.

Do you know that 5 billion people around the world are at risk of developing a heart disease due to trans fat? Not only are they at the risk of having a heart disease, they may also die. Consumption of trans fat is responsible for up to 500 000 premature deaths from coronary heart disease each year around the world (WHO).  According to WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus “Trans fat has no known benefit, and huge health risks that incur huge costs for health systems.” “By contrast, eliminating trans fat is cost effective and has enormous benefits for health. Put simply, trans fat is a toxic chemical that kills, and should have no place in food. It’s time to get rid of it once and for all.”

Trans fat affects your health by raising the level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL, a.k.a. bad cholesterol) and lowering the amount of high-density lipoprotein (HDL, a.k.a. good cholesterol) in your blood. As a result of this, cholesterol will build up in the arteries, leading to high chance of cardiovascular disease and stroke. In addition, like all fats, trans fat contains 9 calories per gram. Hence, cconsuming a lot of it can cause excessive weight gain, leading to a high risk for diabetes and other health problems.

So, in order for you to live a healthy life, you have to greatly reduce the amount of trans fat you consume. And to do so, following these simple steps can be really helpful:

• Read nutrition labels, so as to know the amount of trans fat you eat. Check the total fat and amount of trans fat in one serving

• Rather than eat so much packaged and baked foods that contain trans-fat, replace them with healthy ones. For example, you can replace butter with olive oil safflower, beef with skinless chicken or fish and whole-fat dairy with low-fat or non-fat milk.

In conclusion, the Nigerian government must speedily enact the two best-practice policy alternatives: 1. mandatory national limit of 2 grams of industrially produced trans fat per 100 grams of total fat in all foods; and 2) mandatory national ban on the production or use of partially hydrogenated oils (a major source of trans fat) as an ingredient in all foods. (WHO)